Never Give Up

20180114 Never Give Up Isiah 1:16-17 (Opening) 16  Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;  remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;  cease to do evil, 17  learn to do good;  seek justice,  correct oppression;  bring justice to the fatherless,  plead the widow’s cause.  Introduction There’s a catch phrase that’s been around for years. It’s been attributed to both Joe Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy clan, and also to Knute Rockne, the football legend. Either could have said it. I guess Kennedy could have borrowed it from Rockne. Anyway, the saying is Saying When the going gets tough… The tough get going. It’s been explained as meaning “When the situation becomes difficult, the strong will become engaged.” That phrase has been applied to many different situations. It’s even been twisted around to mean that those who only act tough will run away when the situation becomes too difficult. The Story We’ve been studying Jesus’ parables that He used to teach key points about the kingdom. Today we’re looking at another of the parables that only Luke tells us about. Let me set up the situation. Jesus is talking with His disciples. There is a group of Pharisees nearby, but He is primarily talking to His disciples here. He started talking directly to His disciples in verse 22 of Luke chapter 17, and He continues His discussion with them here in this parable. Luke 18:2 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. Jesus begins His parable with a non-specific man who is a judge. There’s no way to know for sure if this man was a Jew or a Gentile judge. During the first century, the Jews had the Great Sanhedrin, basically the Supreme Court for Israel, a group of 71 elders of the Jews who met in Jerusalem. But they also had the Lesser Sanhedrin, groups of 23 elders in specific cities, sort of like our circuit court of appeals. But there were also judges appointed by the Romans, who would adjudicate lesser crimes, and were responsible to the Roman government, and not the Jewish leadership. This judge was not a very nice person. He didn’t care about God, and he didn’t care about people either. He selfishly looked out for himself. Jesus’ choice of words to describe this judge sound to me like they negate the two great commandments that Jesus points out in Mark 12. Mark 12:28-31 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” This judge didn’t follow either of these commandments. He didn’t love God or his neighbor. Not a good combination for someone who is suppose to provide justice. Luke 18:3 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ Jesus uses a widow in this parable to signify all the forgotten people, those who weren’t able to take care of themselves, and those who were downtrodden. The Jews were told from the beginning to take care of the widows and the orphans. Deuteronomy 27:19 19 “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” There are several other places where God warns them to care for them, because they can’t care for themselves. Something happened to this widow. Jesus doesn’t tell us what happened, but she kept going to this judge and asking for justice. We know this widow was alone, she had no one to help her, because she personally went to the judge. If she had any male relatives, they would have gone in her place to represent her to the judge. But this widow was representing herself. This widow was persistent. She kept coming back every chance she could, asking for justice against the person who had wronged her. Luke 18:4-5 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” I can think of two words to describe this judge: heartless, and selfish. The only reason he decided to give the widow justice is because she was bothering him. The Greek word that is translated as “beat me down” in the ESV is a boxing term meaning to hit below the eye. I doubt he was worried about this widow literally beating him up and physically giving him a black eye, but it’s possible the only thing he was worried about was that she would make him look bad, give him a figurative black eye in the view of the public, because he wouldn’t help her. The only way he could find to save face was to give in to her continual requests for justice. The Explanation This is one of those parables where I’m really glad Jesus explained what He was talking about. I can kind of get the gist of what He’s saying, but Jesus explains well what He wanted His disciples to understand from this parable. You may have noticed that I didn’t start in verse 1 of chapter 18 when I started talking about the parable. I didn’t want to start out like Luke did by giving away the basic meaning of what Jesus was saying. Luke introduces the parable with verse 1. Luke 18:1 1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Always pray and don’t lose heart. Why would the disciples lose heart? There are a few reasons. Jesus knew that He was going to die on the cross soon, so He was preparing His disciples for that experience. On top of that, He also knew that after He ascended, He would be gone for a long time, and people would begin to doubt that He would return. If you flip back to the end of chapter 17 here in Luke, Jesus is talking about a delay in His return. Luke 17:22 22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. He says we’ll want Him to return, but we’ll have to wait. He compares that time with the time of Noah, and to when Lot came out of Sodom. Those were bad times, times of great destruction. But His point is to not give up hope, because it will happen; He will return, just like He said. Jesus begins the explanation of His parable starting in verse 6. Luke 18:6-7 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? What did the unrighteous judge say? “Even though I’m not a nice person, and I don’t believe in God, I guess I’ll grant this widow her justice so maybe she’ll quit bothering me! If I don’t, she’ll end up making me look bad.” It doesn’t have anything to do with justice for the widow, it has to do with peace for the judge. And protecting his image. Jesus compares the unjust judge with God, the perfectly righteous Judge. They couldn’t be any more different. Jesus says that God will grant justice to His elect, His chosen people, those who follow Him. And He says God will not delay. Luke 18:8 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Not only will God not delay in His response, it will be a speedy response, unlike the unrighteous judge, who sat on his hands until he couldn’t wait any longer without damaging his own reputation or being badgered and aggravated by the widow. God gives us justice because He loves us and takes care of us. God’s justice will be the final justice. Jesus ends his explanation of the parable with the phrase “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” There’s a lot of discussion among Bible scholars what Jesus meant with this question. The way I see it, since it will be like the time of Noah, or when Lot left Sodom, He will find faith on earth, but there will be few left; the remnant will be small. Application So, what’s the point that Jesus is trying to make? I know, always pray and don’t lose heart, like Luke wrote in verse 1, but how do we apply that to our lives today? What does it mean to us? Well, lets start with the fact that God loves us, and wants the best for us. Here in this parable, Jesus contrasted God with the unrighteous judge, but in Matthew 7, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares God with a human father. Matthew 7:9-11 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! I’ve never given my kids rocks instead of bread. I’ve made cookies that were hard as rocks, but that’s different. Jesus says that God gives us good gifts. James says it too. James 1:17 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Not rocks or serpents, but good gifts; perfect gifts; exactly what we need, exactly when we need it. That’s what God gives us when we ask. He knows what we need, and will give us what we need when we need it, but not before. Sometimes we think we need something, but we really don’t need it, it’s just a want. We want something and we’ve decided that we need it. God knows if we need it or if we just want it. Now, don’t get me wrong. God will gives us what we want, too, but His desire is for the best for us, so if we want something that isn’t good for us, or isn’t’ good for us right then, He will withhold that until the right time. That brings us to being patient. Before Jesus told this parable about the persistent widow, He was talking about His return. What we call the Second Coming. We know He’s coming back. But sometimes we feel like “Well, it’s been 2000 years, who knows how much longer it will be.” In the first century, people were giving up hope. But both James and Peter wrote about that day when Jesus will return, and to wait for it patiently. James 5:7-8 7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. A farmer doesn’t know exactly when his crops will be ready. He can look at his fields and know that it will be soon, but until they’re really ripe and ready, the farmer waits patiently and prepares for the harvest. James encouraged his readers to do the same. We may not have planted the field, but we have the scripture to tell us the signs when the harvest will be. We just need to be patient and be ready. Peter’s encouragement is similar, and I think hits closer to home for us today. 2 Peter 3:8-9 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Peter tells us there’s a reason for the delay. The harvest isn’t ready, and God wants as much good fruit as possible, so He’s waiting. I think verse 8 is significant here, too. God created time on the first day of creation, and since He created time, He’s not limited by it. God being limited by time would be like a cartoonist being stuck inside his cartoon. To God, time is meaningless. He knows we are limited by it, but to Him, that limitation is just another thing to work with. Everything He created is limited by time, so He works with it to our benefit. And that benefit is that He’s willing to “wait” as long as it takes for as many to repent as will repent. He wants to save as many as He can. It's our responsibility to not “lose heart” as Luke puts it in verse 1. Sometimes it’s hard to not become discouraged. We see sinful people around us getting away with acting the way they do, and, like the widow in Jesus’ parable, we pray for justice. These people are doing things against God, and we want justice, not just because of the injustices being done in the world, but because we know that God gets the final say. Living in this sinful world can be discouraging, but we need to keep our chin up. We know what the end result is going to be. God wins. That’s how it all works out. In the short term, we’re going to face problems, and we’re going to have to deal with people who do bad things to us, and people who do bad things in the name of God, even though they don’t know God. That’s why we meet together; to encourage each other and help each other during the hard times. That’s what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews was talking about. Hebrews 10:24-25 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. The Greek word translated as “stir up” is translated as “provoke” in the places it has a negative connotation. I remember as a kid all of us provoking each other and getting each other in trouble. This is the opposite of that, but the same idea. We come together to provoke each other to do good things, and to encourage each other so we can make it through until we die, or Christ returns, whichever comes first. I really don’t think the ESV translation does justice to verse 25, where it reads “neglecting to meet together”. I like some of the other translations. The King James says “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”, and the New English Translation says “not abandoning our own meetings”. To me, forsaking and abandoning are much stronger than neglecting. Rather than abandoning getting together, we’re encouraged to continue to gather, help each other endure and wait for the Promise that has been made, that Christ would return for us and take us home. The other part of the parable encourages us to pray always, as Luke wrote it. The Greek word there means at all times or ever. But that doesn’t mean we need to be in continuous prayer. Here we run into some difficulties with the English language. Most of us English speakers get the words continuous and continual confused. Continuous means all the time, and continual means regularly. The widow asked the judge for justice continually; she wasn’t always at his office or his home asking for justice, she went there regularly and badgered him. In Colossians, Paul tells his readers in the congregation in Colossae Colossians 4:2 2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. He’s not saying we need to be praying 24/7/365, constantly. He’s saying we need to pray often every day, continually. We need to have a habit of prayer, and not just prayer but watchful prayer, where we anticipate His response to our prayer, and thank Him when we see it. What should we be praying about, according to the context of Jesus’ parable? We should be praying for His speedy return. Just like how He taught His disciples to pray “May Your Kingdom come”, we should be praying for His coming, because that would mean that, according to Peter’s letter, as many have come to repentance as will come. It will be the “fullness of time”, and then He can return and take us home. Conclusion Maybe we can change the catch phrase we started out with today. What I see Jesus saying in His parable is that when the going gets tough, the tough keep praying. As the Hebrew writer said, “and all the more, as we see the Day drawing near.” Lord, come quickly.  Hebrews 12:1-2 (Closing) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 12